rash

Question
Hi,  my dog gave birth a week ago to 9 healthy puppies.  But she seems to have developed a rash on the inside of her back legs.  I'm wondering if that is common,  if it is maybe caused from her milk leaking onto her leg when she is lying down, or puppy pee, or maybe shes just too hot? do you know of anything safe to use to help ease the rash?  My vet is closed for the holidays.  She does get reactions easily and i usually give her benedryl,  but i don't want to use that while she is nursing.  Any ideas would be great, thank you

Answer
HI Kelly. I'm sorry it took me a bit to get back to you. I've been trying to figure out what you could give hr for this. I have a pretty good web site that will tell you what you can or can't give a pregnant dog. I'll list it at the end. My best advice would be to take a warm, wet wash cloth and bath her back legs. That way, if it is something from her body, or from the puppies, that's causing an irritation, you can keep that area clean. Just make sure you pat dry with a towel. It is not recommend for use in pregnant dogs. I would assume this would apply to nursing dogs as well. I would just keep the area clean until you can get hr to a vet. If it gets worse, you may have to find an emergency vet, or try a vet outside of your area. I hope she's ok! Sorry I couldn't be of better help to you. I'm just not one for giving medication to a pregnant/nursing dog unless a vet says it's ok.